We shouldn't be overly surprised by the news that Mark Wahlberg wants to sequelize his Oscar nominated Boxing drama The Fighter. The thing about Wahlberg is, he's starred in so much studio dross over the years that when a film he appears in catches on with people and does well... he gets an adrenaline rush and he's openly addicted to it. And that adrenalin rush usually leads to him telling anyone who cares that he wants a sequel to feel it all over again. The exact same thing happened with the gangster picture The Departed. For months after Martin Scorsese's film opened in 2006 and having starred in easily his best ever film and was getting critics praise beyond anything he had come close to before, Wahlberg tried his damnedest for about a year to get a sequel off the ground, and now exactly the same thing is happening with The Fighter. In what would probably be the most unprecedented sequel in Hollywood history, Wahlberg is said to be training his body physically and preparing his mind mentality to star in a sequel to the seven time Oscar nominated biopic of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward... in what very well might be the first direct sequel of a real life cinematic portrayal in History. My mind has drawn a blank tonight to think of any others and so has OWF's Simon Gallagher's in thinking of another. To coincide with the release of The Fighter on Blu Ray & DVD, Entertainment Weekly caught up with Wahlberg on set of his new film Contraband where he said;
I weigh about 185. But its still solid. Ready to throw down. I got bit by the bug, and now Im trying to plant the idea in everyones head that we should do not five or six Fighters like Rocky but one more because the big thing that Micky Ward was famous for was his three epic battles with Arturo Gatti. So were talking about possibly taking one more run at it. Ive got my sparring partner sitting right in front of me. We did about ten rounds yesterday. And in between shooting this movie [Contraband] that Im doing, we had a couple of hours off while they shot another couple of scenes, so we flew back to the hotel, got in our boxing gear, boxed, took a shower, and went back to the set."
He then goes on to say that Micky and Dickie (Ward's brother) are thrilled at the idea of a sequel which Wahlberg has previously hinted would be set around Mickey's rise to fame after his unlikely title win that the original was set around.On whether the insanely talented supporting cast, including Oscar winners Christian Bale (as Dickie Eklund) and Melissa Leo (as his mother) and the nominated Amy Adams (as his girlfriend) would return, he said;
Yeah. Everybody had such an amazing experience making the movie that I cant imagine they wouldnt want to go back. But its still kind in the early stages.
And indeed, they may feel they owe a bit of gratitude to Wahlberg, the spearhead of The Fighter for years, to give them the platform for the best turns in all of the above's careers. If a sequel to The Fighter is going to happen, I imagine it would need to come together in the next two years or Fox Searchlight won't go for it, thinking the interest will have worn off. Wahlberg and The Fighter director David O'Russell are teaming together to make an adaptation of the video game Uncharted as their next film together which should be a go project later this year... unless of course the idea of a Fighter 2 takes precedence. (article co-written by OWF trialist Sean Burton)